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Han goes Solo in Star Wars spin-off movie

Disney is wasting no time in recouping the billions it spent buying Star Wars. The Force Awakens lands in cinemas this December, kicking off what will be an annual roll-out of new movies, and a certain scruffy looking nerf-herder will be in hot pursuit with his own solo movie.

Long-rumoured but now officially announced, a stand-alone Han Solo movie is slated for 25 May 2018. It joins Gareth Edwards' Rogue One as part of the Star Wars Anthology, spin-offs films Disney plans to release in the years between core "Episode" entries.

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The film will follow a young Han, and explore how he became the smuggler and all-round scoundrel he was when Luke and Obi-Wan meet him in Mos Eisley Cantina (after he shot Greedo, first). Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, will screenwrite in collaboration with son Jon Kasdan. The elder Kasdan will also executive produce.

Set to direct are Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the pair behind The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street. The duo are enjoying a meteoric rise in the movie business in recent years, overseeing further Lego movies, writing Warner Bros.' The Flash movie, and developing an animated Spider-Man film for Sony.

universe," added the Kasdans. "They’re two of the smartest, funniest and most original filmmakers around, and the ideal choice to tell the story of Han Solo, one of the coolest characters in the galaxy."

The focus on a younger version of the character almost certainly means recasting, and while it wouldn't be the first time the Star Wars films have done that -- Ewan McGregor played a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy -- this will be the first time the principal cast of Luke, Leia, or Han have been changed. Perhaps Harrison Ford can be tempted back once again for bookend scenes, to placate fans?

The Han Solo movie is not the same as the Anthology film that was to have been helmed by Chronicle and Fantastic Four director Josh Trank. The state of that project following Trank's departure, as well as a still-undetailed Boba Fett movie, remain to be seen.